T-Mobile is accused by the Federal Trade Commission of knowingly placing bogus charges on phone bills and ranking up cash to the tune of hundreds of millions at their customers' expense.
According to the FTC's report:
In a process known as "third-party billing," a phone company places charges on a consumer's bill for services offered by another company, often receiving a substantial percentage of the amount charged. When the charges are placed on the bill without the consumer's authorization, it is known as "cramming."
When's the last time you've went through your phone bill, line by line? Not recently, am I right? That's understandable, and because typical phone bills can be dozens of pages long, customers weren't likely to spot these fraudulent charges. In fact, only 40 percent of customers did, while the other 60 percent went ahead and unknowingly paid extra.
The company has recently been making headlines thanks to its eccentric CEO who recently said of AT&T and Verizon, "[they're] raping you for every penny you have... the fuckers hate you," all in praise of T-Mobile's own Un-Carrier promotion.
So what happens now? The FTC is doing its best to make sure the company pays back the customers they've nickel and dimed. "It's wrong for a company like T-Mobile to profit from scams against its customers when there were clear warning signs the charges it was imposing were fraudulent," FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said. "The FTC's goal is to ensure that T-Mobile repays all its customers for these crammed charges."
Read the FTC's report here.
